May, 2010:

The 2010 Ursa Major Awards, celebrating the best in anthropomorphic art, writing, and other media were presented at FurAffinity United on Sunday, May 30th. 2 the Ranting Gryphon hosted the show and presented the awards. From the Ursa Major Awards web site: “More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Award, the Ursa Major Award is presented annually for excellence in the furry arts. It is intended as Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom’s equivalent of the Hugo Award ® presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom’s Anthony Award, horror fandom’s Bram Stoker Award, and so forth.” This year more than 1,100 fans from more than a dozen countries world wide took part in nominating and voting for the Ursa Major Awards. The most yet!

And here, now, are the nominees and winners in each of 10 categories.

In the category of Best Anthropomorphic Game, the nominees were:

Earth Eternal (created by Sparkplay Media)

G-Force – The Video Game (Developed by Keen Studios, published by Disney Interactive)

Predation, the Board Game (created by Quentin Long)

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (Developed by Insomniac Games, published by Sony Computer Entertainment)

And the Ursa Major Award went to: Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

In the category of Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration, the nominees were:

Where the Wild Things Are (from Warner Brothers, Directed by Spike Jonze)

And the Ursa Major Award went to: Avatar

The staff of InFurNation.com wish to extend our congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and winners — as well as all of the fans who took the time to participate in the nominations and voting! Remember to visit the Ursa Major Awards web site to find out more about how to nominate the best in anthropomorphics from 2010 for the 2011 awards.

It’s been announced that Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes (best known for a recent slew of horror-movie remakes like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th) will be creating a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Mr. Bay and his team of producers (Brad Fuller, Andrew Form, Galen Walker, and Scott Mednick) will begin seeking script-writers in June. No word yet on a planned-for release date, or even a possible director, but the project is to be released by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

Stumbled across a new CGI film to be hitting our shores this September. A 3D feature from India no less, created by Crest Animation Studios. Alpha and Omega is in English though, produced by Richard Rich (The Swan Princess), directed by Anthony Bell (The Boondocks) and Ben Gluck (Brother Bear 2), and released by Lionsgate. The story revolves around a pair of wolves living in the wild in Canada. Kate (voiced by Hayden Panettiere) is a responsible pack leader, while Humphrey (voiced by Justin Long) lives just for fun, frolic, and friends — alpha and omega, get it? Kate’s father has arranged for her to be mated to the alpha male of another pack in order to prevent an inter-pack war. That plan is put in jeopardy, though, when both Kate and Humphrey are captured by humans and transferred to Idaho as part of a wolf re-introduction program. Can they make it back to their pack in time to prevent war? The trailer for this new film is up on YouTube.

One of the most popular (and furry) characters from Marvel Comics’ Agents of Atlas series is getting his own 3-issue mini-series, thanks to writer Jeff Parker and illustrator Giancarlo Caracuzzo. For those who don’t know the back-story, Gorilla Man used to be a famous soldier of fortune named Ken Hale in the mid-20th century. Obsessed with avoiding his own mortality, Hale sought out a legendary jungle beast who could grant him immortality. The legend was true — unfortunately, Hale didn’t know what else would be changed about him forever! But such a lover of adventure isn’t going to let a little thing like being changed into a humanoid gorilla stop him from kicking tail! Newsarama.com has an interview with Jeff Parker discussing this full-color mini-series coming out in July.

Those with an interest in comic strip history should of course be familar with the adventures of Ignatz Mouse and Krazy Kat, written and illustrated by George Herriman in the early 20th century. Now Sunday Press Books brings us Krazy Kat: A Celebration of Sundays, coming this June in Hardcover. Collecting the greatest Krazy Kat Sunday pages, for the first time in their original size and colors, just in time for Krazy Kat’s 100th birthday. The book also includes a sampling of Herriman’s pre-Krazy works, as well as contributions by Michael Tisserand (Gambit Weekly) and Art Spiegelman (Maus). Here’s more information on the book at Westfield Comics.

Folks who consider the art of the fantastic to be true art were saddened when world-renowned fantasy artist and painter Frank Frazetta passed away from a stroke on Sunday (May 9th) at the age of 82. Never a “furry artist” so to speak, he nevertheless managed to sneak a few anthropomorphic characters into his works. No, what gave Mr. Frazetta his fame were his book-covers featuring big, muscle-bound heroes defending scantily-clad (but often well-armed) women from terrible monsters and barbarian hordes. Perhaps more-so than even the writers themselves, Frazetta’s painted covers came to define the image of such characters as Conan the Barbarian (from Robert E. Howard), Tarzan, and John Carter of Mars (both from Edgar Rice Burroughs). Since the 1960’s, Frazetta painted hundreds of well-known book covers, as well as album covers for groups as diverse as Molly Hatchet, Nazareth, and (most recently) Wolfmother. More than anyone else, Frazetta was the one who came to define fantasy heroes and heroines as sexy. He was an inspiration to an entire generation of artists, the most obvious being Boris Vallejo, Richard Corben, Rowina, and The Dark One.

Tracy Butler’s popular web comicLackadaisy (a frequent Ursa Major Award nominee and winner of the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Award — twice) has finally been released on dead trees by 4th Dimension Entertainment. The Lackadaisy Volume 1 graphic novel (in softcover) tells the story of the Prohibition-era speakeasy known as Lackadaisy, and characters like “a rum-running violinist named Rocky and a police academy dropout nicknamed Freckle”. Oh by the way, those characters (and all the rest) happen to be anthropomorphic cats. That little fact, not to mention Ms. Butler’s attention to detail and sepia-toned artwork, have sealed the popularity of this comic in and out of Furry Fandom.

The enigmatic Norwegian funny-animal cartoonist known only as Jason returns with a brand-new softcover graphic novel, coming (in full color) in July from Fantagraphics Books. Werewolves of Montpellier tells the story of Sven, an aimless artist who finds himself in Montpellier, France, after a failed romance. By day he plays chess and poker, sketches his new hometown, and bemoans the state of his life. By night… he dresses up as a werewolf and raids other peoples’ homes! Of course, one thing he hasn’t taken into account is the society of real werewolves who live in Montpellier…! The press release describes it as “… a lycanthropic thriller, a romantic comedy, and an existential drama… basically, your typical Jason book”.

Yet more stuff to watch upcoming from Boom! Studios: First off, welcome the return of the Duck Knight! Darkwing Duck returns, after many requests sent in to Boom! In this new full-color comic series is (written by Ian Brill and drawn by James Silvani) the terror that flaps in the night has been missing for more than a year… But when a nefarious evil plan threatens the city of St. Canard, it might be time to get dangerous again! Find out more in June. Also this summer, Boom! is presenting the graphic novel adaptation of Tim Burton’s oh-so-popular Alice in Wonderland film. The movie comes to DVD in August, but the graphic novel (adapted by Alessandro Ferrari and illustrated by Massimiliano Narcisco) comes this June, both in softcover and a limited-edition hardcover that includes a stitched-in cloth bookmark.